estoria | « 011 ⇢ event011.exe »

Who: CERES & you
When: ooc: 03/22-03/25; ic: 12/09-12/10
Where: Cerealia's Entertainment District
What: Intro log
Rating/Warning: PG-13 | possibly nsfw (please let us know if you need this rating changed, or you are welcome to continue any naughty shenanigans in a private log)

//event011.EXE

The Gifts that Keeps on Giving ((You)) Nightmares

It's been a whole month without any new arrivals. Who knows why? If you ask CERES, they won't bother with any in-depth explanations. They will simply claim that none of the code out there has been responding to their recovery methods, so they had to rework a lot of their technology. However, after several weeks of grueling work, they have finally experienced success! A fresh new batch of faces is coming in, and to celebrate their arrival and the real upcoming holidays, CEO Julius Vincere has arranged for a Christmas-themed carnival for all to enjoy.

Those who arrive will wake up in Cerealia and be given a long, boring explanation and powerpoint as per usual before being ushered onto a bus (there is no escape. The robots will force you onto the bus one way or another). You will be unwillingly carted to the theme park where you will be immediately assaulted by a giant array of lights followed by several rides that you can enjoy. After you disembark from the bus, one of the snowman robots will be waiting to give you tickets to the rides and show you around as part of the Grand Opening. The amusement park will remain open for the rest of the month of December so anyone can visit as they please. The first couple tickets will also be on the house for new arrivals, but the rest will have to be bought with credits, so choose wisely! (Or try and sneak into the rides -- then face the wrath of the snowman robots and their snowman firearms :D)

"☃ WELCOME NEW ARRIVALS ❅
YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT THE SANTASTICAL FOREST OF CHRISTMAS WONDERS ❅
PLEASE ENJOY ALL THE RIDES CEO JULIUS VINCERE HAS HAND-PICKED FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT ❅
WE WISH TO BRING YOU MERRY FEELINGS FOR THE HOLIDAY ❅
COME GIVE SNOWTRON 5000 A HUG ❅
WHAT? YOU DON'T WANT ONE ❅
BUT I WAS PROGRAMMED TO CONVEY HUGGING AS LOVE THROUGH AFFECTION ❅
PLEASE DON'T RUN ❅
COME BAAAAACK, VISITOR ❅"

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I

[ xxxx ] Do you like ferris wheels? This is an enchanting one where you get to ride around in a giant snowflake at a very limited speed. The wheel will turn excruciatingly slow before stopping abruptly, leaving you trapped at the very top. We hope you're not afraid of heights because you're going to be in there for a while! The windows on the snowflake will rapidly darken leaving you and your fellow riders trapped in the darkness. At that moment, you will feel something warm breathing down your neck and along the back of your ear. As you reach over, you'll feel like the chair underneath you is made of snakeskin, and a hissing sound will intensify as the "chair" squirms and as the breathing gets louder and hotter. Scrabble at the doors, fight your way out! Will you escape or not? Probably not, but the experience will last only a good five minutes before the lights come back on and before the ferris wheel starts moving again. The chair will appear as normal, and there will be no one else inside except any fellow riders who came with you.

PHASE II

[ xxxx ] If the ferris wheel didn't "do it" for you, then perhaps a fun house will? If you're a fan, that is! This Christmas-themed funhouse features a wonderful walk through a snowy forest convered in singing reindeer. The more you walk through, the more you will notice things like within the distorted mirrors, there will briefly appear strange specters. You will also hear a bunch of howling in the background, and while you may think that you're safe since they're trapped behind a mirror, you are very wrong. The lights will go out once more, and you will hear the mirrors shatter all around and feel yourself being grabbed and hurled to the ground. Whatever is coming for you is something you can't see, but it's advancing fast with impressive strength to hurl you back once more. You will feel pain erupt through your body before an engineer will appear to get the lights back on. Once they're back on, the reindeer will be happily singing, and all the mirrors will appear as they were before -unbroken.

PHASE III

[ xxxx ] After those interesting adventures, another option would be to simply visit the rocking santacoaster, a large, sprawling roller coaster that reaches 150 mph. You will be strapped into a sled and be shot through the tracks where you can scream and cry all you want except once you reach the tunnel, everything will come to a sudden stop (whiplash pending). You and the other riders will be in there for a few minutes, surrounded by a dozen santas as they start to fly out from the tunnel walls, carrying swords and swooping down to take a swipe at you. You better duck or be prepared to be cut up by their blades. The rollercoaster will abruptly resume, and when you reach the end, you might notice some bleeding, a little bit of hair missing, or some clothes shred up. If you ask the snowman robots about it, they will just shrug and claim they don't know what you're talking about. Please go enjoy a snowcone on the house!

PHASE IV

[ xxxx ] The Christmas whirl will be your last stop for the evening! This is a ride that goes round and round and round while tilting. Everyone will be strapped into it while standing up and forced to hold on as it spins, and somewhere in the midst of the spinning, the ride will suddenly malfunction. Yes, big surprise there! But it won't stop spinning. It will just be a rockier ride, and you will seemingly enter a new space where you will be among the stars and seeing planets all around you. Your own home planet will be amongst them before it breaks open like an egg and out crawls a friendly visitor. If you get bit by it, you will spend the rest of the day and night experiencing an array of possible symptoms, including: a voracious appetite, a fear of light, the urge to 'mate' with anyone who smells especially good, heightened senses, the ability to climb on all kinds of surfaces, irritability and crankiness... (( you don't have to experience them all. you can pick and choose which one you like. ))

BONUS

[ whyo'clock ] What's that jingling you hear in the background? Why, it's Santa Clause! Coming here all the way from the North Pole. The park will stop, and all the snowman robots will gather in the square, ushering along as many people as possible. Santa-Bot X-3 will be seated on his chair to welcome all visitors to sit on his metaphorical lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. He will then give them a nicely wrapped present and tell them that it's exactly what they asked for, but they can't open it until they get home. For those who can't wait and choose to open it quickly, they will get some nice treats from Mundus Caelestis. But beware! Those who do take this gift home will experience a weird after-effect as the lovely red and white toy will come to life on its own and hop out of the box that evening to try and violently electrocute the owner. The other one is completely harmless.

[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with trigger-y or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to CEREALIA's latest intro post For your convenience, we have compiled a post detailing what's going on right here and feel free to consult the FAQ if needed. Please leave any lingering questions in the OOC post, and we'll answer them as soon as we can. OVERFLOW IS HERE!!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Somehow, he distantly recalled Shirasu telling him the exact same thing - that Chuutaro wasn't there. It felt like a fuzzy memory tucked neatly in the back of his mind, but he pushes it aside for now and accepts the information. He's thankful that he doesn't move too close to him but at the same time he knows he'll need to move closer himself if he's to see the how the device operates.]

Oh- right. I do! I don't know if it got broken when I fell or not but... I guess I'll find out.

[He inches closer to the ninja, pulling out his own device.]

Thank you.

[For helping him, for trying not to treat him like a stranger despite everything. He tries to relax a little once he's moved closer to Shirasu in order to see what he is doing. It takes a bit more effort than he would like.]

[ Shirasu inclines his head, smiling faintly, sadly. Soramaru really has nothing to thank him for. ]

It's nothing. I know Tenka would want to hear from you. [ And, possibly, get Soramaru far away from him. For at least a time, if not permanently. If not Tenka, the Yamainu captain would love to. ]

Abe no Sousei is also here. [ He waits for Soramaru to show him a working device, then carefully presses buttons to bring up the messaging feature. ]

Can I ask... what you remember last?

Back home- there were... a lot of things going on. But it's been a year since I last saw you. I had a weird dream that I was here or well- I think here. I don't know. But I didn't remember the things I do now.

[Which things those were, Shirasu probably already had a ballpark guess about, given how hesitant Soramaru had been in approaching him.]

You jumped.

[ Shirasu does feel some connection to Soramaru's words about dreaming being in Cerealia, but he can't place it. And after "dreaming" someone else's memories not long ago, he's a little wary of such things.

But that is pushed aside with those two, innocuous words. ]

... I did. [ One of two secrets he's kept from Tenka. Shirasu glances off to one side, away from Soramaru, and then down at the device. ]

I survived. It's been a year for me, as well.

Oh.

[He doesn't know quite what to say to that. He's glad he survived. He wanted to see him again and here he was getting his chance.]

We- we were afraid we weren't going to see you again. I'm glad you're alright.

[And he was, even if he wasn't sure what that meant anymore. They had so many mistakes lined up like a brick wall between them. He isn't quite convinced everything had been a lie. He still couldn't forgive him for what had been done to their parents, but he didn't wish him dead along with them. If he could live, he could remember these things. Dead, those memories became nothingness.]

[ And he had been certain he wouldn't see Soramaru or any of the Kumou brothers again, before he came here. But that's something he leaves unsaid. He's... ambivalent about the suicide attempt; like everything else, he'd failed, and so it was best to move on.

And he has someone he has to try and live for, anyway.

As he demonstrates how to search for and pull up Tenka's device number, he shifts a little closer to Soramaru, in order for him to see. When he does, Soramaru might see the broken fox mask tied to the belt of his Western-style pants. ]

For what it might be worth, I'm glad you're all right, too.

You... I thought we would have to act differently with one another after everything. I'm glad nothing's changed, though there's still a lot I don't know how to begin to talk with you about.

[Namely, what he did to their family. He knows Tenka will have probably punched him in the face over it by now. His parents wouldn't want them to suffer over it, he knows, but it still hurts to think about. Not to mention all the things that had happened between himself and Shirasu and his brother specifically.]

It was Tenka's wish. [ Otherwise, he'd be putting as much distance between himself and Soramaru as possible. He'd be watching from afar, but otherwise letting them live their lives. Shirasu is still mostly of the opinion that further contact is bad for both sides, but like anyone else who's known him for more than ten minutes, he can't refuse something Tenka Kumou has asked for. ]

Tenka had me promise to never let you come to harm, and I'll abide by that. But for my own part, I no longer have any need to harm you. [ It sounds cold, perhaps. But it's the truth. Whether the brothers believe him or not, trust him or not, the only impetus he ever had for causing them pain was for Orochi-sama. And that cause is gone. ]

Aniki would make you promise something like that.

[He'd smile about it if it wasn't so worrying that Tenka had already tried to patch things up. He didn't want to see his brother get hurt and the facts were that he still wasn't sure he could trust Shirasu, as much as he wanted to and to keep the lines of communication open.]

Well, I'm sorry if he's been troubling you at all - you know how he is.

[And Soramaru understood very clearly that just because Shirasu didn't feel like harming him didn't mean that he couldn't. Though he had no further use for him with the Orochi gone.]

Tenka is Tenka. [ There's a distinct thread of fondness in his voice, though he's still maintaining a closed expression. His leg seems better able to hold his weight, and if Soramaru is injured, sticking around for the next trick doesn't seem like a great idea. ]

Are you able to walk? We should leave here.

« 011 ⇢ event011.exe »

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject